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The events of the last ten years have shaken the “permissive consensus” that kept the European integration process going for many years.'Output democracy', as based on decisions presumably meeting the needs of the citizens, is no longer enough to obtain public support. Never before has a process-oriented approach to European democracy been more urgent. This book aims to address this urgency, by providing an account of the European legislative process that is less conventional and does justice to the democratic potential inherent in trilogues. In particular, this book provides: a comprehensive reconstruction of the workings of trilogues, relying on internal documents collected through a series of access to documents requests; gives meaning to the legal notion of informality, understood as one of the most defining, although elusive, features of trilogues; squares the practice of trilogues with the European democratic order of the Treaties, showing that such a practice is compatible with a model of'negotiation democracy'.

The present volume uses a comparative regional approach to analyze how permacrisis—an extended period of instability and insecurity—has been experienced and dealt with in the European Union (EU) and Latin America. Written by academicians and policy experts from both regions, the volume has three main objectives. Firstly, it critically evaluates the response of regional organizations and governments in the EU and Latin America to the crises that have shaken these regions in recent years. Secondly, chapters contribute to a better understanding of the promised benefits and risks of digital currencies and fintech more generally to economic growth, financial stability and inclusion. Finally, the volume promotes an understanding of the challenges of permacrisis in both the EU and Latin America, as well as encouraging their cooperation at the multilateral and bi-regional levels. Providing an interdisciplinary perspective, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of international relations, international political economy, international finance and economics, international law, global governance, and regionalism, as well as public officials of ministries of foreign affairs, finance and the economy, public officials of international and regional organizations. This is an open access book.

The histories of European unification and of West European democracy during the second half of the twentieth century have often been considered as separate or even antagonistic processes with the institutions of European integration being regarded as bastions of bureaucratic rule. A More Democratic Community challenges this assumption and argues that European integration benefited from the democratic accountability of member states while contributing to the validation of national democratic institutions. However, it also unveils a paradox: as integration deepened, it diminished the power of national parliaments, sparking a democratic accountability crisis within the Community.

The Americanization of European Union Democracy Promotion: Ideology, Diversity, and United States Hegemony is a timely and thought-provoking exploration of the origins, development and growing prominence of international democracy promotion in the past hundred years.Building upon the vast literature on the topic, chapters look at the EU as a global governance actor and map its multilevel governance system in democracy promotion, contextualising and comparing this with the United States hegemonic design, which has become a fundamental instrument of national foreign policy in the past two decades. Creating a comprehensive understanding of the similarities and differences between the EU and US approaches, José M. Magone examines various EU models of democracy, analysing how different national democracy understandings in Europe coexist with the technocratic liberal European one. The book ultimately argues that since 2004 the EU has aligned with a more aggressive ideological US hegemonic model of democracy promotion that has its roots in Wilsonian international liberalism.Considering the pivotal role of the United States'hegemonic design on EU democracy promotion, this book will be invaluable to students and scholars of international relations, European and US politics, global governance and democratization. It will also prove vital for policymakers looking into the role the EU could play in strengthening non-national global governance in the long run.

Constitutional consciousness belongs not solely to the legal field, but also to other social sciences. It refers not only to constitutional and national identity but also to European identity, as the general principles of EU law derive from common constitutional traditions. Its low level results with difficulties in the proper reading of the legitimacy of power and with the recently widely discussed democratic deficit both in member states and in the EU itself. The publication addresses the issue of European integration and the common catalogue of values and human rights. The aim is to point out that increasing its level in society shall bring remedy for the democratic deficit in the EU and strengthen respect for fundamental rights. This thesis gives the publication an innovative Character.

Bringing together leading and emerging scholars on European politics, this collection explores how dilemmas associated with key democratic concepts can be understood in relation to the EU. The book renews our understanding of EU democracy in ways that are more attentive to the multiple fault lines and cleavages that structure this political order. It focuses on a set of democratic dilemmas inherent to EU democracy, including representation, deliberation, sovereignty, citizenship, democratic contestation and market, to provide discussions on the specific tensions and trade-offs associated to a particular concept. The book engages in the theoretical groundwork necessary for assessing and analysing the specific dilemmas that arise when translating democratic concepts into concrete institutional designs in the European setting.

The democratisation of the EU is a fascinating process with an unforeseen outcome: the European Union is emerging as a new kind of international organisation with an equally innovative model of governance. Seventy years after the start of European integration, this book reveals that the determination to lay the foundations for an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe has not led to the creation of a federal state or a confederal association of states. Instead, the EU has evolved over the decades from a union of democratic states to a European democracy. At present, the EU can be characterised as a ‘democratic union of democratic states', while it may be regarded from the global perspective as a ‘democratic regional organisation'.The outcome of the EU's drive towards ever closer union is as consequential for the study of public law and the humanities as the replacement of the Ptolemaic world vision with the heliocentric view of Copernicus and Galilei has been for science. For the first time since the start of the Early Modern Era, states have broken the vicious circle of war by pooling sovereignty. While the European states learned the hard way in the 20th century that their continent had become too small for absolute sovereignty, the superpowers of the 21st century should perceive the global dangers of climate change, pandemics and nuclear proliferation as warning signals that the world has become too small for unrestrained exercise of absolute sovereignty too.

The Concept of European Values: Creating a New Narrative for Europe offers a philosophical analysis of the concept of European values from its origin to the present day. This book rethinks European values in light of the crises—economic, political, migration, identity, and pandemic—that the European Union (EU) has faced from 2008 until today and analyzes EU initiatives to create a new narrative for Europe. Sanja Ivic reexamines the concept of European values as well as the philosophical and political assumptions on which this concept is based. In times of crisis, the EU has shown a lack of solidarity. As evidenced by Brexit, the migration crisis, and the pandemic crisis, the EU is experiencing a clash of national and postnational norms and values. Ivic argues that the EU did not react in accordance with the supranational values and principles on which it is based, as stated in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union: respect for democracy, human dignity, freedom, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. Its reaction to these crises shows a turn from postnational values (which the EU advocated as a supranational political community) to nationalist paradigms.

The European Union means many different things to its many peoples. In Germany, for example, the European project was conceived mainly as post-national, or even post-sovereign. In France, by contrast, President Emmanuel Macron has pursued the vision of a sovereign Europe; that is, an EU that would become a formidable geopolitical actor. Yet, instead, Europe has struggled to ascertain its values abroad and even domestically, facing a sovereignist rebellion from its newer member states, such as Hungary and Poland, and the departure of Britain. The eurozone crisis has undermined the EU's economic credentials, the refugee crisis its societal cohesion, the failure to stand up to Russia its sense of purpose, and the Covid-19 pandemic its credibility as a protector of European citizens.The key argument of this book is that the multiple crises of the European project are caused by one underlying factor: its bold attempt to overcome the age of nation-states. Left unchecked, supranational institutions tend to become ever more bureaucratic, eluding control of the people they are meant to serve. The logic of technocracy is thus pitted against the democratic impulse, which the European Union is supposed to embody. Democracy in Europe has suffered as a result.

“Given their ethnic diversity, to what extent, and at what cost and benefit to human dignity, can European countries adopt and adapt plural democracy?” The contributors to this volume offer answers to this question from a variety of multidisciplinary perspectives within the framework of the integral theory of law and the state. Their shared aim is to explain legal phenomena in the context of other relevant issues and to identify, analyse and critique conceptualizations, problems and situations. This volume is rooted in the historical and contemporary European experience with special cases from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Latvia, Slovenia, Spain and Canada which are relevant for understanding the European problem. Solutions to the problem are sought through innovative interpretations of the rule of law, democracy and human dignity, which are followed by argumentation about how these concepts, when recognized as European legal principles, can be implemented in order to avoid ethnic conflicts.Following an introduction that defines the problem at the centre of the book and explains how legal theory can be used to address it, the book consists of eleven contributions divided into three thematic sections. The first covers topics concerning the European principles which can help avoid ethnic conflicts: the principle of compulsory adjudication in interstate relations, the principle of democracy, and principles regarding the recognition of individual and collective identities. These European principles are then investigated by drawing on legal and political theories. The second section presents three ways of conceptualizing ethnical needs in multi-ethnic states: asymmetric federalism, dêmoicratic account and cooperative federalism. The third and final section elaborates on issues concerning the protection of minority rights: the role of judicial ideology in protecting minority rights, citizenship, the EU mechanism for the protection of minority rights, and theimportance of remembering tragic events affecting minorities.

Refugees'Europe: Towards an Inclusive Democracy addresses, through the normative, practical and political views of well-known international experts, the challenges that the so-called refugee crisis has generated for democracy in Europe.The management of the refugees'crisis reflects the crisis of democracy in Europe. The refugees'phenomenon has had a huge impact on European integration, from the local to the supranational scale, making it a pressing matter for the future of democracy in Europe. This book provides a myriad of critical evidence-based expertise combining philosophical, legal, economic and political reflections on how to better understand and deal with the refugees'case.

Dieses Buch beleuchtet aus interdisziplinärer und ländervergleichender Perspektive, unter welchen Bedingungen direkte Demokratie funktionieren kann, wo ihre Chancen und Risiken liegen und welche Rolle dabei die politische Bildung, die politische Kulturtradition eines Landes, der Zusammenhang von Entscheidung und Verantwortung und der Grad der Kleinräumigkeit und Dezentralität der Entscheidungsstrukturen spielt. Ausdrücklich wird weder für noch gegen die direkte Demokratie plädiert, sondern das Thema unvoreingenommen und mit der Gründlichkeit behandelt, die die öffentliche Diskussion über plebiszitäre Elemente in der Politik meistens vermissen lässt.

This book shows how the EU's dual sovereignty–legitimacy problem can be resolved through the political concept of European citizenship, which can serve both to define the scope of European sovereignty and to justify EU power beyond national democracy.It reconceptualizes the EU's legitimacy problem and demonstrates how sources of legitimacy can be identified and give rise to European sovereignty. It argues that sovereignty should be based on the will of citizens acting through various political bodies within the EU—city halls, regional entities, national governments, and EU institutions—and develops a general theory, arguably applicable to any political order. The EU is an unprecedented political project that is in tension with traditional forms of state legitimation based on national democracy, as nationalists and populists throughout Europe often make clear. Against this backdrop, the book fully articulates the notion of European sovereignty and argues that the EU's sources of legitimacy are based on European citizenship and national democracy. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU politics, European integration, international institutions, and international relations.

Comparing the structures and challenges of democratic constitutionalism in India and the European Union, this book explores how democracy is possible within vastly diverse societies of continental scale, and why a constitutional framework is best able to secure the ideals of collective autonomy and individual dignity. It contributes to an emerging comparative discussion on structures of power, separation of powers and a comparative law of democracy, which has been long neglected in comparative constitutional studies.This timely and invigorating book showcases a novel comparative approach termed “slow comparison” counters the conceptual focus on nation-states in comparative studies and develops a broader understanding of democratic constitutionalism. In the context of the contemporary crisis of constitutional democracy, triggered by populism, majoritarianism and authoritarianism, chapters continue older ongoing debates about multiculturalism, identity politics and democratic equality that hold important insights for both India and the EU to deal with contemporary challenges.This book will be an important read for scholars of comparative constitutional law and theory. It will also benefit those studying EU law and Indian constitutional law.

Representative democracy remains the best available form of government – and the one preferred by most EU citizens, but satisfaction with how it plays out varies greatly across the continent. Among the perceived weaknesses are high levels of political corruption, low resilience to disinformation, and out-of-touch governing elites. Yet there is some hope that direct channels for citizens to express their concerns and preferences, fact-based deliberation in representative bodies and robust mechanisms to hold governments to account can help save European democracy from the onslaught of populism. This volume draws together proposals into a framework reflecting the four cumulative criteria used by modern political theorists to assess the health of a democracy: inclusion, choice, deliberation and impact. Its expert contributors offer pragmatic ideas to strengthen representative democracy at both the national and EU level.

This book offers a transdisciplinary perspective on the question of how political legitimacy is constructed in the increasingly contested postnational setting of the European Union. Drawing on the example of the controversy about the EU constitution and the use of ‘EU constitution speak'in commentaries published by Polish and French broadsheets, it reveals the transformation that constructions of political authority and association undergo when they are being transposed from the discourse field of multilateral negotiation to that of national news media. Through an original combination of the linguistic theory of discourse developed in Critical Discourse Analysis, Bourdieu's field theory and notion of symbolic power, and political thought on polity-building, it develops a framework for the discourse study of legitimation and Europeanisation, and proposes applications beyond the case studies in the book.To students of European integration, it demonstrates the potential these concepts have for unravelling the implicit practices of postnational polity building. Discourse researchers, on the other hand, will discover how detailed text analyses gain significance in debates related to the macro level of political organisation when guided by sociological and political theory.

À l'heure où l'Union européenne donne des signes d'un délitement annoncé, cet ouvrage s'intéresse, dans la perspective du temps long, aux États et aux personnalités politiques ayant joué et jouant encore un rôle majeur dans l'histoire de la construction européenne. En interrogeant l'idée d'Europe, en examinant les conséquences des deux guerres mondiales et en détaillant les étapes de la construction européenne, cet ouvrage tend à démontrer que l'Union européenne ne vit que par ses États et pour ses États.À travers l'analyse de faits historiques, la présentation de notices biographiques et l'étude de textes fondamentaux, cette Histoire de la construction européenne propose une immersion dans des contextes politiques, sociaux, économiques ou encore culturels à la fois convergents et divergents. Elle est surtout l'occasion de s'interroger sur la possibilité de concrétiser une commune solidarité entre les citoyens et les États européens.

This open access book explores how digital tools and social media technologies can contribute to better participation and involvement of EU citizens in European politics. By analyzing selected representative e-participation projects at the local, national and European governmental levels, it identifies the preconditions, best practices and shortcomings of e-participation practices in connection with EU decision-making procedures and institutions. The book features case studies on parliamentary monitoring, e-voting practices, and e-publics, and offers recommendations for improving the integration of e-democracy in European politics and governance. Accordingly, it will appeal to scholars as well as practitioners interested in identifying suitable e-participation tools for European institutions and thus helps to reduce the EU's current democratic deficit. This book is a continuation of the book “Electronic Democracy in Europe” published by Springer.

This volume aims to provide consolidated analyses of the 2019 European elections and explanations about the future of the European party system, in a context in which the EU has to face many challenges, including the erosion of electoral support for mainstream parties and the increasing success of populist parties. The structure of the book is designed to combine the overall view on the role of elections in shaping the future European project with relevant case studies. The reader is given a perspective not only on the results of the European Parliament elections as such, but also on how these results are related to national trends which pre-exist and what kind of collateral effects on the quality of democracy they could have. Contributors include: Jan Bíba, Sorin Bocancea, Dóra Bókay, Radu Carp, József Dúró, Tomáš Dvořák, Alexandra Alina Iancu, Ruxandra Ivan, Petra Jankovská, Małgorzata Madej, Cristina Matiuța, Sergiu Mișcoiu, Valentin Naumescu, Gianluca Piccolino, Leonardo Puleo, Alexandru Radu, Mihai Sebe, Sorina Soare, Tobias Spöri, Jeremias Stadlmair, Martin Štefek, Piotr Sula, and Jaroslav Ušiak.

“This book is an enrichment for the standing debate about Europe and should be published and widely read and discussed.” – Boudewijn R.A. BouckaertReflections on Democracy in the European Union, with a foreword by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is a unique volume that offers an interdisciplinary approach on EU democracy, law and politics from economic, juridical and philosophical perspectives. It is divided in three parts and deals with EU's contemporary challenges, its historical development, democracy and rule of law. The volume connects the EU's present to the past in order to reflect on possible future scenario's – which is especially important in these turbulent times after Brexit.The volume is highly recommended for academics, economists, politicians, jurists and policy makers.

In recent years serious concerns emerged over the state of European democracy. Many democracy indices are reporting a year-on-year drift towards less liberal politics in the countries of the European Union. Polls regularly suggest that the voters are coming to question democratic norms more seriously than for many decades. Here, Richard Youngs assesses these risks as many analysts, journalists and politicians stressed the danger of Europe descending into an era of conflict, driven by xenophobic nationalism and nativist authoritarians slowly dismantling liberal democratic rights. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has intensified these fears. There is another side of the democratic equation, however. Youngs argues that governments, EU institutions, political parties, citizens and civil society organisations have gradually begun to push back in defence of democracy. With each chapter, Youngs shows how many governmental, political and social actors have developed responses to Europe's democratic malaise at multiple levels. Europe's democracy problems have been grave and far-reaching. Yet, a spirit of democratic resistance has slowly taken shape.This book argues that the pro-democratic fightback may be belated, but it is real and has assumed significant traction with various types of democratic reform underway, including citizen initiatives, political-party changes, digital activism and EU-level responses.

This book takes a wide-ranging approach to tackle the complex question of the current state of constitutional democracy in the EU. It brings together a broad set of academics and practitioners with legal and political perspectives to focus on both topical and perennial issues concerning constitutional democracy (including safeguarding the rule of law and respect for fundamental rights) in theory and practice, primarily at EU level but also with due regard to national and global developments. This approach underlines that rather than a single problématique to be analysed and resolved, we are presently facing a kaleidoscopic spectrum of related challenges that influence each other in elusive, multifaceted ways. Critical Reflections on Constitutional Democracy in the European Union offers a rich analysis of the issues as well as concrete policy recommendations, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners, students and interested citizens alike. It provides a meaningful contribution to the array of existing scholarship and debate by proposing original elements of analysis, challenging often-made assumptions, destabilising settled understandings and proposing fundamental reforms. Overall, the collection injects a set of fresh critical perspectives on this fundamental issue that is as contemporary as it is eternal.

This book examines the antecedents and consequences of citizens'confidence in different political institutions and authorities. Its main argument states that a distinction between confidence in representative and regulative institutions and authorities is of crucial importance in order to gain novel insights into the relevance of political confidence for the viability of democratic systems. Relying on individual-level data from the European Social Survey (ESS), the author provides empirical evidence that citizens from a total of twenty-one European countries make a distinction between confidence in representative institutions and authorities and confidence in regulative institutions and authorities. Furthermore, the author shows that both types of political confidence emanate from different sources and are associated with varying consequences. Overall, these findings indicate that confidence in representative and confidence in regulative institutions and authorities establish two qualitatively different types of political confidence, each with distinct implications for the functioning and well-being of modern democracies.

Party systems are crucial elements for the functioning of political systems and representative democracies. With several European countries experiencing significant changes recently, it is necessary to update our knowledge. This volume analyses party system changes in Europe in the 21st century by considering several dimensions such as interparty competition, the cleavage structure, electoral volatility and the emergence of new actors. The book describes the principal continuities and changes in party systems in Europe; analyzes the main explanations for these trends; and assesses the impact of the crisis on the patterns observed. By considering a wide range of Western and Eastern European countries, and focusing on the ‘parameters'of party system change, this book seeks to fill an important gap in the literature through a comparative analysis of the evolution of party systems in Europe over the last decades.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political parties, party systems and politics, electoral behavior as well as more broadly to European politics, comparative politics. political representation and the quality of democracies.

With a Foreword by the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani.This book sheds light on the political dynamics within the EU member states and contributes to the discussions about Europe. Authors from all member states as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey assess how their country could get more involved in the European debate, taking the reader on a journey through various political landscapes and different views. The chapters cover issues ranging from a perceived lack of ambition at the periphery to a careful balancing act between diverse standpoints at the geographical centre. Yet, discussions share common features such as the anxiety regarding national sovereignty, the migration and border discourse, security concerns as well as the obvious need to regain trust and create policies that work. The book contributes vigorously to the debate about Europe in all capitals and every corner of the continent, because this is where itsfuture will be decided.

Im Zentrum dieses Buches steht die Zu- und Abnahme der Demokratiequalität in den EU-Staaten. Mithilfe des Demokratie Barometers wird für die Jahre 2004 bis 2012 nachgezeichnet, dass ein Decline of Democracy keineswegs auf prominente Beispiele wie Polen und Ungarn begrenzt ist. Vielmehr identifiziert Theresia Smolka ein Bündel struktureller Faktoren, die EU-weit gültig sind. Vor allem eine niedrige Einkommensungleichheit und lange EU-Mitgliedschaft wirken sich negativ auf die Demokratiequalität der EU-Mitglieder aus.

Is the European Union still a viable project? The last few years have been difficult both economically and politically, while its integrative function and legitimacy have been seriously tested. For many social, economic and geo-political reasons, its expansionary moment has stopped abruptly. On the contrary, the Greek economic crisis and the Brexit referendum have raised the spectre of fragmentation and political disintegration. The promise of the EU as a possible model for legitimate governance beyond the nation state lies somewhat in tatters. Even if the EU may indeed survive most of its current crises, is the project of a EU as a normative project beyond rescue? Ever since Maastricht, the democratic legitimacy of the EU has been a key concern of policy makers, citizens and academics alike. This issue is essentially a normative one, and over the same period our work in this area has been at the forefront in exploring what has come to be known (following an early working paper we wrote with this title in 2000) ‘the normative turn in EU studies'.The debate on the democratic form and legitimacy of the EU is one that has gone on for some time and to which we, together with other scholars, have tried to contribute in the course of the last twenty years or so. Collecting articles written over the course of this period is not just meant as the testimony of an intellectual journey, but also a way of tracing such a journey in retrospect and mapping the important moments of the intellectual and scholarly debates that have contributed to shaping both our understanding and our expectations of the EU's possible futures.

An all-star cast of scholars and politicians from Europe and America propose and debate the creation of a new European parliament with substantial budgetary and legislative power to solve the crisis of governance in the Eurozone and promote social and fiscal justice and public investment.The European Union is struggling. The rise of Euroskeptic parties in member states, economic distress in the south, the migrant crisis, and Brexit top the news. But deeper structural problems may be a greater long-term peril. Not least is the economic management of the Eurozone, the nineteen countries that use the Euro. How can this be accomplished in a way generally acceptable to members, given a political system whose structures are routinely decried for a lack of democratic accountability? How can the EU promote fiscal and social justice while initiating the long-term public investments that Europe needs to overcome stagnation? These are the problems a distinguished group of European and American scholars set out to solve in this short but valuable book.Among many longstanding grievances is the charge that Eurozone policies serve large and wealthy countries at the expense of poorer nations. It is also unclear who decides economic policy, how the interests of diverse member states are balanced, and to whom the decision-makers are accountable. The four lead authors—Stéphanie Hennette, Thomas Piketty, Guillaume Sacriste, and Antoine Vauchez—describe these and other problems, and respond with a draft treaty establishing a parliament for economic policy, its members drawn from national parliaments. We then hear from invited critics, who express support, objections, or alternative ideas.How to Democratize Europe offers a chance to observe how major thinkers view some of the Continent's most pressing issues and attempt to connect democratic reform with concrete changes in economic and social policies.

Herman Van Rompuy livre ici un ouvrage riche en réflexions et pensées sur le monde politique actuel, mais pas que...Herman Van Rompuy est un politicien-penseur. Doté d'un esprit analytique, il a permis à l'Europe de maintenir son cap pendant les pires tempêtes. Aujourd'hui âgé de 70 ans, il livre ses Anti-mémoires. À chaque page, un flux de pensées à laisser décanter. L'ouvrage, construit en vingt chapitres courts et teinté d'une touche philosophique, mêle expérience et réflexion, et est écrit d'une plume humble, mais bien aiguisée. Anti-mémoires est un livre qui donne à réfléchir. Herman Van Rompuy jette un regard dans le rétroviseur avec une « solidité tranquille », de la même façon qu'il observe le présent et se tourne vers l'avenir. Il s'exprime en véritable homme d'État.Laissez-vous embarquer par les Anti-mémoires d'un homme qui, d'une plume aiguisée, livre ses réflexions et ses expériences d'homme d'Etat.EXTRAITBien qu'on n'ait jamais autant tenu compte des préférences individuelles, l'homme d'aujourd'hui a l'impression qu'il n'a rien ou peu à dire et qu'il est menacé ou manipulé par les entreprises ou les hommes politiques. Les rectificatifs ne suffisent donc pas. Mais le plus grand rectificatif échappe aux décideurs politiques et autres entreprises. Il subsiste un déficit éthique qui ne place pas l'autre au centre, mais l'intérêt personnel. La « fraternité » des Lumières ou l'amour du prochain prôné par le Christ ne sont plus très répandus. Combler ce déficit éthique est une lutte quotidienne et une mission à accomplir par la société civile ou tout simplement par chacun d'entre nous. Nous devons également penser de plus en plus au bien-être de ceux qui n'existent pas encore, des enfants encore à naître.Le courage politique consiste parfois à avancer contre les courants qui préconisent des solutions de facilité flattant les besoins immédiats de ce que l'on croit être la majorité des citoyens. Le populisme en est un exemple. Ces partis ne prennent pas la peine de se demander si c'est une bonne chose à long terme. Ils exploitent des sentiments facilement manipulables où intervient toujours la peur de l'autre. Mais pas de n'importe quel autre. De préférence l'autre autre. Facilement identifiable.CE QU'EN PENSE LA CRITIQUEN'attendez pas des Anti-mémoires d'Herman Van Rompuy des révélations sur des crises oubliées de longue date ou sur des conflits avec des opposants politiques, mais les leçons de vie d'un homme qui a passé plu de quarante ans en politique nationale et internationale.

Dieses Buch untersucht theoretisch und empirisch die Zusammenhänge zwischen Multi-Level-Governance und lokaler Demokratie. Es enthält umfassende konzeptionelle und theoretische Überlegungen. Auf diesen aufbauend werden die Auswirkungen von Modellprogrammen und Politikinnovationen im EU-Mehrebenensystem auf die Aktivierung von benachteiligten Personengruppen und die Stärkung von Gemeinwesen und Demokratie anhand von vier Modellvorhaben vergleichend untersucht. Abschließend werden umfassende weiterführende Schlussfolgerungen zu den Themenfeldern Multi-Level-Governance und lokale Demokratie gezogen.

Der Sammelband befasst sich mit dem Transfer von Normen und Regeln im internationalen Raum durch staatliche und nichtstaatliche Akteure. Ein besonderer Fokus liegt auf der zunehmenden Rolle zivilgesellschaftlicher Akteure bei der Förderung von Rechtsstaatlichkeit, Menschenrechten und demokratischen Strukturen im europäischen Nachbarschaftsraum, die unter Zuhilfenahme des External Governance Ansatzes und des Public Diplomacy Konzepts untersucht werden.Dabei werden sowohl „klassische“ Akteure, wie etwa politische Stiftungen, als auch eher aus dem Analysefokus traditioneller Außenpolitik herausfallende Akteure wie etwa das Europäische Jugendparlament betrachtet. Darüber hinausgehend wird die Bedeutung von Normen und Regeln auch in anderen Bereichen der internationalen Beziehungen thematisiert. Insgesamt wird damit ein Beitrag zu einem breiteren Verständnis von Außenpolitik geleistet.

The effectiveness and capacity of survival of democratic regimes has been recently and widely questioned in the public and political debate. Both democratic institutions and political actors are increasingly confronted with rapid economic and societal transformations that, at least according to some observers and commentators, they not seem to be ready or equipped to manage effectively.This book evaluates and challenges recent scholarly literature on the quality of democracy. It provides a critical assessment of the current state of the studies on the subject, identifying the key questions and discussing open issues, alternative approaches, problems and future developments. Bringing together some of the most prominent and distinguished scholars who have developed and discussed the topic of the quality of democracy during the last decade, it deals with a highly relevant topic in political science and extremely sensitive subject for our democratic societies.This text will be of key interest to scholars of democracy and democratization and more broadly to comparative politics, electoral studies, political theory, power and comparative political institutions.

This book calls for a philosophical consideration of the development, challenges and successes of the European Union. The author argues that conceptual innovation is essential if progress on the European project is to be made; new meanings, rather than financial or institutional engineering solutions, will help solve the crisis. By applying a philosophical approach to diagnosing the EU crisis, the book reconsiders the basic concepts of democracy in the context of the complex reality of the EU and the globalised world where profound social and political changes are taking place. It will be of interest to students and scholars interested in EU politics, political theory and philosophy.

This title was first published in 2002: Concentrating on the myriad political aspects of European Monetary Union (EMU), this volume places the EMU and the European Union (EU) in a global context. It should be useful for scholars and students of European studies, economics, modern history and international relations. Libraries and embassies should also find it a valuable reference tool.

The European Union is grappling with a democracy problem. The succession of crises which have plagued the increasingly executive EU for years, has led to a rising cacophony of voices calling for fundamental change to the integration project. Yet despite the seismic shock of the Brexit referendum and the electoral upsets by nativist parties across the continent, few of the plans for EU reform include concrete proposals to reduce the age-old democratic deficit. This book is concerned with the two-pronged question of how the relationship between citizens, the state and EU institutions has changed, and how direct democratic participation can be improved in a multi-layered Union. As such, this edited volume focuses not on populism per se, nor does it deeply engage with policy and output legitimacy. Rather, the research is concerned with process and polity. Building on the notion of increasing social, economic and political interdependence across borders, this volume asks how a sense of solidarity and European identity can be rescued from the bottom up by politically empowering citizens to ‘take back control'of their EU.

This volume draws on a Foucauldian understanding of governmentality to explore how EU civil society funding policies depoliticise civil society organisations. It questions whether international civil society funding always depoliticises civil society organisations, as the literature on governmentality and international civil society policies argues. The author examines how the liberal and neo-liberal rationalities of EU funding have both politicising and depoliticising effects on the human rights organisations funded, and demonstrates that whether the effects help or prevent the politicisation of human rights depends on how legitimate or contested the issue is domestically and how the civil society organisations act in this political context. These themes are explored through an in-depth analysis of the case of Turkey and EU funding of organisations working in the fields of women, LGBT and Kurdish rights.Unpacking liberal and neo-liberal governmentality in EU democracy promotion and civil society funding, this insightful contribution to the literature will be of interest to scholars of International Relations, Middle East Studies, European Studies and democracy promotion.

Does European integration contribute to, or even accelerate, the erosion of intra-party democracy? This book analyses the impact of European Union (EU) membership on power dynamics, focusing on the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party (PS), and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). Utilising a principal-agent framework, it investigates who within the parties determines EU policies and selects EU specialists. Drawing on original interviews with EU experts from Labour, the PS, the SPD and the Party of European Socialists (PES), as well as an e-mail questionnaire, this book reveals that European policy has remained in the hands of the party leadership. The study also suggests that the party grassroots are interested in the EU, but that interest rarely translates into influence. As regards the selection of EU specialists, this book highlights that the parties'processes are highly political, often informal, and in some cases, undemocratic.

This book studies how established political parties react to the far left and far right parties that have surged in many democracies worldwide. While some of the extremist parties are being imitated in response, established parties can also choose to systematically rule out all political cooperation with them, imposing a cordon sanitaire. A third response by established parties combines these two reactions. How common are these three responses, and how do they affect far left and far right parties'electoral support? This book addresses these questions by analyzing experimental and non-experimental data from fifteen European countries since 1944. In doing so, it informs scientific and public debates about challenges to established parties, how these parties deal with these challenges, and what the consequences are for the quality of democracy in contemporary democratic societies.

In the past ten years, Europe has faced challenges that are unprecedented in its contemporary history. The economic and financial crisis revealed the weaknesses in the functioning of the Eurozone, notably the European Union's macro-economic structure. The neo-liberal measures intended to remedy it have caused, however, fierce reactions on both poles of the political spectrum. The reduction of Member States'sovereignty in fiscal and economic policy gave rise to right wing populism and Euro-skeptic political forces. Resisting the politics of austerity, the social movements across Europe have resorted occasionally to extra-institutional mechanisms and channels. Violence has indeed become Europe's new normal, but not only due to the rise of radical left-wing and, even more so, right-wing social movements. Hit by a series of terrorist attacks, European polities have descended into a latent (and in moments real)'state of nature.'Eleven contributions to this volume are all concerned with the different facets of the European crisis and the possibilities of overcoming it. They address themselves to the philosophers, political scientists, and legal scholars interested in the European Union studies. (Series: Democracy and the Rule of Law, Vol. 7) [Subject: Constitutional Law, Politics, Human Rights Law]

The book covers some of the major issues concerning the problematic relationship between respect for democratic principles and the new European Economic Governance. Innovative approaches are highlighted throughout the book: new frameworks and arrangements are proposed on the basis of efficiency analyses, as well as their institutional and legal suitability. Though the perspective adopted is essentially a legal one, the economic and policy background are also given due consideration.The papers presented here offer a balanced mix of empirical (including comparative) and theoretical analysis; several also combine the two approaches, carrying out empirical analyses, then setting the results against theoretical options. Given the relative dearth of literature on democratic principles and the EMU, let alone a comprehensive enquiry, the book marks a valuable new contribution.

Centripetal democracy is the idea that legitimate democratic institutions set in motion forms of citizen practice and representative behaviour that serve as powerful drivers of political identity formation. Partisan modes of political representation in the context of multifaceted electoral and direct democratic voting opportunities are emphasised on this model. There is, however, a strain of thought predominant in political theory that doubts the democratic capacities of political systems constituted by multiple public spheres. This view is referred to as the lingua franca thesis on sustainable democratic systems (LFT). Inadequate democratic institutions and acute demands to divide the political system (through devolution or secession), are predicted by this thesis. By combining an original normative democratic theory with a comparative analysis of how Belgium and Switzerland have variously managed to sustain themselves as multilingual democracies, this book identifies the main institutional features of a democratically legitimate European Union and the conditions required to bring it about. Part One presents a novel theory of democratic legitimacy and political identity formation on which subsequent analyses are based. Part Two defines the EU as a demoi-cracy and provides a thorough democratic assessment of this political system. Part Three explains why Belgium has largely succumbed to the centrifugal logic predicted by the LFT, while Switzerland apparently defies this logic. Part Four presents a model of centripetal democracy for the EU, one that would greatly reduce its democratic deficit and ensure that this political system does not succumb to the centrifugal forces expected by the LFT.

Wie lässt sich die populistische Welle eindämmen, die unsere Demokratien zu destabilisieren droht? Wie lässt sich ein Auseinanderfallen der Europäischen Union verhindern? Thomas Piketty und seine Mitstreiter plädieren für die Demokratisierung der Eurozone, damit Europa wieder zu dem wird, was es sein sollte: ein Projekt, das den Wohlstand der Vielen mehrt und nicht den der Wenigen. Seit der Eurokrise ist Europa im Griff der Austeritätspolitik. Doch wer hat darüber entschieden? Während die EU ein europäisches Parlament kennt, bestimmen in der Eurozone allein die Regierungen, in der Regel sogar, ohne die nationalen Parlamente ernsthaft zu fragen. Heraus kommt eine Politik, die einseitig die breite Masse belastet und das große Kapital schützt. Dieses Buch entwirft und begründet einen Vertrag, mit dem eine parlamentarische Vertretung der Eurozone geschaffen würde, um die Bürger einzubinden, den Interessen der Mehrheit Gehör zu verschaffen und das Auseinanderdriften Europas zu stoppen – für ein anderes, ein optimistisches Europa.

Europe is in crisis. With rising unrest among citizens of EU member states exemplified by the UK's decision to leave the EU, and the growing popularity of anti-EU political parties, Dieter Grimm presents the argument that Europe has to change its method of further integration or risks failure. This book, containing essays many of which have not been published in the English language to date, explores how the EU has become over-constitutionalized. Grimm argues that this has left the EU with a democratic deficit leading to the alienation of citizens. This book highlights Europe's democracy problem. The most prominent argument running throughout is that the EU and its decision-making processes have become over-constitutionalized. This is due to the constitutionalization of European treaties, which has occurred by raising them to the eminence of a constitution as a result of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. However, the treaties contain provisions that would be ordinary law in member states. The fact that they enjoy constitutional status in Europe detaches them from the democratic processes in the member states and the EU itself, and contributes to the growing independence of the EU's executive and judicial institutions. The book also asserts that currently the EU does not have enough sources of legitimation to uphold itself, surviving solely on the legitimation provided by member states. One popular remedy is the suggestion of'parliamentarization'of the EU, giving the European Parliament the powers typically possessed by national parliaments as a means of heightening its legitimation. This is criticized by Grimm as expanding the Parliament's powers would not change the effects of over-constiutionalization as the Parliament is inferior to the constitution. In order to reduce the EU's legitimacy deficit, Grimm makes several recommendations. The repoliticization of the decision-making processes, which can be achieved by reducing treaties to the capacity necessary for their constitutional function; the reinvigoration of European Parliament elections, by having'Europeanized'parties to increase engagement with European society and give voters the opportunity to more immediately influence European politics; and a new division of powers based on subject matter to restrain European expansionism, reserving particular areas of policy to the responsibility of member states even if this affects the common market.

An examination of nanotechnology as a lens through which to study contemporary democracy in both theory and practice.In Democratic Experiments, Brice Laurent discusses the challenges that emerging technologies create for democracy today. He focuses on nanotechnology and its attendant problems, proposing nanotechnology as a lens through which to understand contemporary democracy in both theory and practice. Arguing that democracy is at stake where nanotechnology is defined as a problem, Laurent examines the sites where nanotechnology is discussed and debated by scientists, policymakers, and citizens. It is at these sites where the joint production of nanotechnology and the democratic order can be observed. Focusing on the United States, France, and Europe, and various international organizations, Laurent analyzes representations of nanotechnology in science museums, collective discussions in participatory settings, the making of categories such as “nanomaterials” or responsible innovation” in standardization and regulatory arenas, and initiatives undertaken by social movements. He contrasts American debates, in which the concern for public objectivity is central, with the French “state experiment,” the European goal of harmonization, and the international concern with a global market. In France, public debate proceeded in response to public protest and encountered a radical critique of technological development; the United States experimented with an innovative approach to technology assessment. The European regulatory approach results in lengthy debates over political integration; the United States relies on the adversarial functioning of federal agencies. Because nanotechnology is a domain where concerns over anticipation and participation are pervasive, Laurent argues, nanotechnology—and science and technology studies more generally—provides a relevant focus for a renewed analysis of democracy.

Ungarn und Polen stehen seit einiger Zeit im Zentrum der Kritik, weil sie „eine Demokratie ohne Attribute“ (Viktor Orbán) anstreben und sich damit gegen die Grundsätze der EU stellen. Die Tendenz zur illiberalen Demokratie paart sich mit dem Populismus und greift europaskeptische Töne auf. Der Verfasser ist seit 2012 in Ungarn als Hochschullehrer für politische Ökonomie tätig und beschäftigt sich in seiner Sammlung von Aufsätzen und Vorträgen mit der Bedeutung autonomer Institutionen für eine freiheitliche Demokratie, mit den Identifikations- und Legitimationsproblemen der EU sowie mit der Behauptung von Francis Fukuyama, wonach die Geschichte belege, dass es keine bessere Lösung für die Gesellschaft gäbe als die Verknüpfung einer rechtsstaatlichen Demokratie mit einer liberalen Wirtschaftsordnung.Die im Buch zusammengefassten Beiträge bieten eine differenzierte Sicht zur Haltung mittel- und südosteuropäischer Länder, heben aber zugleich die Gefahr hervor, die von „einer Demokratie ohne Attribute“ ausgeht.

In this book Kauppi develops a structural constructivist theory of the European Union and critically analyses, through French and Finnish empirical cases, the political practices that maintain the Union's'democratic deficit'. Kauppi conceptualises the European Union as both an arena for political contention and a nascent political order. In this evolving, multi-levelled European political field, individuals and groups construct material and symbolic structures of political power, grounded in a variety of social resources such as nationality, culture, and gender. The author shows how the dominance of both executive political resources and domestic political cultures has prevented the development of European democracy. Supranational executive networks have become more autonomous, reinforcing the dominance of the resources they control. At the same time, national political cultures condition the political status of elected institutions such as the European parliament. The book is particularly suited for undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of European Politics, European Union Studies and International Relations.

Challenging the conventional narrative that the European Union suffers from a'democratic deficit,'Athanasios Psygkas argues that EU mandates have enhanced the democratic accountability of national regulatory agencies. This is because EU law has created entry points for stakeholder participation in the operation of national regulators; these avenues for public participation were formerly either not open or not institutionalized to this degree. By focusing on how the EU formally adopted procedural mandates to advance the substantive goal of creating an internal market in electronic communications, Psygkas demonstrates that EU requirements have had significant implications for the nature of administrative governance in the member states. Drawing on theoretical arguments in favor of decentralization traditionally applied to substantive policy-making, this book provides insight into regulatory processes to show how the decentralized EU structure may transform national regulatory authorities into individual loci of experimentation that might in turn develop innovative results. It thus contributes to debates about federalism, governance and public policy, as well as about deliberative and participatory democracy in the United States and Europe. This book informs current understandings of regulatory agency operations and institutional design by drawing on an original dataset of public consultations and interviews with agency officials, industry and consumer group representatives in Paris, Athens, Brussels, and London. The on-the-ground original research provides a strong foundation for the directions the case law could take and small- and larger-scale institutional reforms that balance the goals of democracy, accountability, and efficiency.

Democracies evolve. Their evolution is not only key to their survival; it is also a reflection of the changing environment in which they operate. This book contributes to the analysis and understanding of how democratic states have transformed over time by examining a number of challenges and opportunities that they face. With a focus on ‘Europe 31', understood as the EU28 plus Switzerland, Norway, and Iceland, the book brings together separate strands of literature which often remain disconnected in political science narratives. Looking at citizen–state relations, the restructuring of politics and institutions of the state, and developments which reach'beyond and below'the state, it interrogates a variety of issues ranging from the decline of parties or the re-emergence of nationalism as a political force, to liberal challenges to social democracy, terrorist threats, and climate change. The book combines these different dimensions into a comprehensive overview of the state of contemporary democracy, its challenges and opportunities, and its dynamic capacity to adapt. In other words, it deals with the perpetual threats to and transformations of democracy, and the state's ability to protect and strengthen its democratic attributes.This text will be of key interest to scholars of European Politics, Comparative Politics, and Democracy Studies.

Wenn etwas heute die Europäer vereint, dann nicht das große Haus Europa, sondern die historische Unruhe: die Unruhe des Austritts der Einzelnen aus herkömmlichen politischen Bindungen. Daraus resultiert auch die Krise des Nationalstaats und seines politischen Ordnungssystems, der repräsentativen Demokratie. Europa könnte dagegen die Chance der Demokratie sein, sich noch einmal neu zu erfinden. Anzusetzen wäre dafür ganz oben - und ganz unten: Abgabe nationalstaatlicher Macht nach oben zugunsten einer handlungsfähigen EU, und nach unten zugunsten freigestellter lokaler Selbstbestimmung. Nur so kann der grassierende Populismus aufgefangen werden.

Dieses Buch betont das Potenzial eines ganzheitlichen Ansatzes Europäischer Bürgerschaft für die bessere Bewältigung der Krisen der EU. Diese erste transnationale Staatsbürgerschaft der Neuzeit hat tiefere historische Wurzeln, mehr rechtliche Substanz und praktische Bedeutung als weithin angenommen. Werden ihre verstreuten Bestandteile zu Leitlinien und Grundsätzen zusammengefügt, zeigt sich deutlich die Bedeutung der Europäischen Bürgerschaft - aber auch notwendige Reformen:Rechte: Das EU-Grundrecht auf Freizügigkeit braucht stärkere Durchsetzungskraft und sollte durch einen Solidarfonds ergänzt werden. Es sollte auf den politischen Bereich ausgedehnt und für Drittstaatsangehörige leichter zugänglich werden.Beteiligung: EU-Verfahren zum Zugang zu Dokumenten, öffentlichen Beratungen und Initiativen mit mindestens einer Million Unterstützern müssen von Bürgern anstatt Lobbys genutzt werden.Identität und Vertrauen: Mehr Schüler und Studenten brauchen Bildung zu Europa und müssen aktive EU-Bürger werden.Das Buch schließt mit einer Reform-Agenda in 12 Punkten.